The present invention relates to a fabric holding down sinker which prevents the fabric from being lifted from the cylinder needles during the knitting operation.
UK Patent Application GB 2199341 discloses a circular knitting machine having a plurality of needles movable longitudinally on the cylinder to perform knitting, a ring around the needle cylinder for being driven therewith. In order to prevent the fabric from being lifted, holding-down sinkers are provided and mounted on the ring and moved radially with respect to the needle cylinder.
There is known another knitting machine for forming terry cloth fabric, disclosed in "IMPROVED DOUBLE LOOP KNIT FABRIC, MACHINE AND METHOD" of UK Patent No. 1 534 575, which comprises a plurality of needles having latches pivotally attached thereto which move between open and closed positions, jack means for operating the needles, and pairs of sinkers for cooperating with the needles for forming loops. The two sinkers of the same pair have one with a sinker throat and the other with a sinker ledge. The sinkers are not provided to hold down the fabric.
The present invention discusses double knit machines. Regular double knit machines are commonly used for knitting plain cotton cloths having no raised patterns, and therefore the dial and the cylinder needles are controlled to complete cycles of knitting through a knit stitch knitting process, and the dial and cylinder needles of each knitting unit constrain each other, i.e. the fully extended out dial needles will press on the edges of the fabric to stop the fabric from being lifted during the raising stitch. These double knit machines have now been commonly used for knitting pique cloths having raised patterns on both sides. In knitting pique cloths, the cylinder needles (or dial needles) may be retainer immovable causing the fabric to be lifted during the raising stitch. In order to eliminate this problem, the present inventor invented a sinker assembly for double knit machine, as disclosed in "DOUBLE KNIT MACHINE FOR KNITTING CONSTRUCTIVE FABRICS" under U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/141,509, filed on Oct. 27, 1994. The sinker assembly is installed in the casing of the double knit machine corresponding to a respective cylinder needle, comprised of a fixed sinker for supporting and guiding the knitted fabric, and a presser sinker disposed in parallel with the fixed sinker and reciprocated radially to press on the duly knitted fabric during each raising stitch of the needle cylinder so as to prohibit the duly knitted fabric from being lifted by the cylinder needle. This structure of sinker assembly is functional, however it is still complicated in structure because it consists of a presser sinker and a fixed sinker.